Publisher alternative in 2026

Not particularly helpful though, Dale!

Yes, Jef4, I too downloaded LibreOffice and found that it did work ok although still not up to Publisher's standard. I will report on this more once I have delved into the matter further. I need to 'try out' a few more things before being totally convinced!

• Ray.

Maybe MS will provide 5 new standalone versions free for the 5 seats of 365 I have....🤔

Hello, Peter,

I am not a Techie so my answer is cautiously provided. I believe that if your Publisher program was purchased as a CD version it will continue to work on your current computer. However, any problems which might develop will not be supported by Microsoft. Also, when you finally replace your existing computer, say, after Windows 11, the program may not continue to work. Example: I have a CD version of Publisher 2016 and already some files created in that program will not convert to a PDF file in Windows 10.

If anyone knows I am wrong in my overall assumptions, please feel free to correct me.

I am disappointed by the fact that 'you pays your money' but eventually you have to pay again! I could accept limitations in version operation but not cancellation.

• Ray

Thank you for your response. I agree. Not only does it not convert Publisher files very well, it's incredibly convoluted if you try to create new documents on it that look like the ones you used to create with Publisher. Things that take me seconds on Publisher I struggled for hours trying to do on Libre - both its text version and its image one. I gave up in the end and tried Scribus because someone had said it was better. I found it no better than Libre. Even the most basic of things like copying and pasting text and images into it are incredibly convoluted, and when you finally manage to get both text and image on a page, trying to wrap the text round the image is a nightmare. Nothing seems to work in the way the instructions say they will. Half the time the tools you are told will appear when you click somewhere just aren't there when you do.

So, I've given up on both of those. I think I'm just going to have to buy something incredibly expensive to do my stuff. If I ever meet a senior executive of Microsoft he won't finf the encounter very pleasant.